Friday's Five Films: June 7, 2024
Another weekly roundup. Default template: do not alter.
For the first week of June; you know how things can go. It’s Pride Month. I might as well start prioritizing LGBTQ+ cinema, right? It’s also been a bit of an eye-opening experience for me because I always like to set my Letterboxd favourites according to such a theme but every time I curate according to such, it ends up reflecting my viewing habits in a sense. I think that might explain a few of the films you’ll find here.
Without further ado, these are Friday’s Five Films. If you like what you’re seeing here, remember to subscribe for a whole lot more.
#1: Alice in the Cities (1974, Wim Wenders)
One of Wenders’s best films, and in my eyes, it’s the best of his “road” trilogy, which was followed up with Wrong Move and Kings of the Road. A lot of this movie feels like it’s incredibly comforting too, because the movie is about a man and a child who form a father-daughter relationship of sorts while they move through Germany - and quite like his more recent Perfect Days, it feels like a movie that captures the beauty present in ordinary life. And after watching it, I couldn’t help but find myself thinking that I’d want to visit all these cities too.
#2: Burnt Money (2000, Marcelo Piñeyro)
Be gay, do crimes. This Argentinian crime movie was screened at the Lightbox for Pride Month, and on a 35mm print that supposedly had not been played since the film premiered at TIFF in 2000. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect from this film but the least I could say about it was that there’s something rather astonishing about the tumult you’ll see in the film before it all heads to the explosive climax you could expect it would head. Of course, when you find out it’s based on a true story, you can only guess how that would all turn out - even when the film tries to make a case that the lovers we’re seeing could easily have found a perfect opportunity for themselves.
#3: Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman)
I feel as if this movie is an essential document for any viewer looking for a means to learn more about the AIDS crisis. It’s an especially tragic documentary at that, perhaps unexpected if you’ve also seen Epstein and Friedman’s The Times of Harvey Milk, but the amount of work that they’ve done for the queer community by making these stories known is so admirable. And it’s even more heartbreaking watching a movie of this sort knowing how many of these lives that were lost could easily have been saved if preventative measures were properly taken, rather than the stigmatization of an entire group of people as Ronald Reagan had actively promoted.
#4: Paris is Burning (1990, Jennie Livingston)
This has been my favourite documentary film for quite some time: and it’s a movie that just shows itself to be so full of life from first frame all the way to last. The amount of time that Jennie Livingston had spent just getting footage from so many queer communities in order to create Paris is Burning makes the whole movie feel so lived-in, but it also helps humanize the people whom we’re seeing as this entire subculture might seem unfamiliar to many viewers. I could go on for even longer about this movie if I wanted to, but alas, I think that’s where I’ll give this film its own essay in due time.
#5: A Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavetes)
This is one of the greatest American films ever made, and just one of the greatest films ever made, period. Gena Rowlands in this movie might be my single favourite leading actress performance in any movie, and that’s not something I find I can really say lightly all because there’s not a moment in A Woman Under the Influence that isn’t at least stressful to watch all throughout. But I think that’s also what makes Cassavetes an incredible filmmaker: he allows the viewer to see these people on an entirely human level even if the surface might seem dysfunctional at that.
The Complete Day-by-Day Log
First time watches are denoted with bold text. Scores are on an out of five star basis.
Friday
The Selfish Giant (2013, Clio Barnard) - ✯✯✯✯½
Vagabond (1985, Agnès Varda) - ✯✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
The Boogeyman (2023, Rob Savage) - ✯✯
Saturday
The Color of Pomegranates (1969, Sergei Parajanov) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Close to You (2023, Dominic Savage) - ✯✯✯✯
A Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavetes) - ✯✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
Sunday
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (2002, Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai) - ✯✯✯✯½
State and Main (2000, David Mamet) - ✯✯✯½
West Indies (1979, Med Hondo) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Alice in the Cities (1974, Wim Wenders) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Cain & Abel (1982, Lino Brocka) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Monday
Paris is Burning (1990, Jennie Livingston) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020, Kim Yong-hoon) - ✯✯✯✯
Singapore Sling (1990, Nikos Nikolaidis) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Tuesday
Mad Max 2 (1981, George Miller) - ✯✯✯✯✯
In a Violent Nature (2024, Chris Nash) - ✯✯✯½
Bound (1996, Lana and Lilly Wachowski) - ✯✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman) - ✯✯✯✯½
Wednesday
Stopmotion (2023, Robert Morgan) - ✯✯✯
Bad Boys (1995, Michael Bay) - ✯✯✯½
Burnt Money (2000, Marcelo Piñeyro) - ✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
Bad Boys II (2003, Michael Bay) - ✯✯✯✯
Thursday
The Strings (2020, Ryan Glover) - ✯✯½
D’Est (1993, Chantal Akerman) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Bad Boys for Life (2020, Adil & Bilall) - ✯✯✯½
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